Doña Marina was originally a Mexican coast slave. She had linguistic skillz that were very valuable because when Cortés showed up, she could translate from Spanish-Mayan-Nahuatl (Local language). She also provided Cortés with intelligence. She heard talk of an attack on cortés, so she warned him, and he was able to counter it.
After the fall of Tenochtitlan, Doña Marina had a baby with Cortés.
Doña Marina y Hernan Cortés
Travel between eastern and western hemispheres was rare.
Portugese sugar plantations were founded in Brazil
Tainos settled throughout caribbean. Tainos were the most prominent people of the Caribbean.
cultivated manioc and other various crops.
Christopher Colombus established hispaniola which is modern-day hait/dominican repub.
Intention was focused on getting trading posts because they didn't want to pay the muslims to use their routes.
Spanish settlers attempted to mine gold, but it was too hard and they gave up.
It became clear that the Caribbean didn't have silks or spices that would do well on the European Market.
Smallpox reached the Caribbean, and devistated the people and crops several times, making the population plummet
English pirates were in the Caribbean to get gold and "booty"
Tobacco became the prime cash crop of the region.
Conquest of Mexico and Peru
Interest of Spanish soon shifted from Caribbean to the Americas with the intention of finding better resources.
Hernan Cortés led an expedition for gold on American mainland, then made his way to Tenochtitlan(which he captured in 2 years), the Aztec capital. Upon doing so, he seized the emperor Motecuzoma II.
Route of Corés
Epidemic disease aided spanish effort because indigenous got sick, but spanish did not.
Another Spanish explorer was Pizarro. He took over the Inca capital Cuzco.
Pizarro called inca officials together, killed most of them, except Atahualpa. Atahualpa enjoyed life a little longer until he delivered gold to Pizarro, who then proceeded to strangle him and chop his head off.
Pizarro
Overall this expedition was a big search for treasure (wealth)
Colliding Worlds (665-670)
Conquest of Mexico and Peru
-BH